{"id":31,"date":"2017-12-28T11:19:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T11:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2017-07-28T18:24:21","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T18:24:21","slug":"non-profit-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/2017\/12\/28\/non-profit-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You a Non-Profit? Then Politics are Out of Bounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-32\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/nonprofits-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"167\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nonprofit organizations exempt from tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code &#8212; schools, religious groups, hospitals, social service providers, and other public charities &#8212; should be careful not to violate the law\u2019s prohibition on political campaign activities.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What\u2019s Prohibited?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, a candidate for public office is absolutely prohibited, whether it\u2019s done directly or indirectly. This restriction applies across the board to campaigns of candidates running for national, state, or local public office.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Examples of prohibited political campaign activities include:<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Endorsing a candidate<\/li>\n<li>Donating to a candidate\u2019s campaign<\/li>\n<li>Allowing a candidate to make a campaign speech at an organization-sponsored event<\/li>\n<li>Allowing a candidate to use an organization\u2019s assets or facilities if other candidates are not given an equivalent opportunity<\/li>\n<li>Distributing materials that favor or oppose a candidate (whether the statements are prepared by others or by the organization)<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Posting comments about a candidate on the organization\u2019s website or maintaining a link to only one candidate\u2019s profile on the site<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Permissible Activities<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>An organization may educate voters as long as it\u2019s done in a nonpartisan, unbiased way. For example, organizations may prepare and distribute voter education guides or hold public forums. But all candidates seeking the same office should have an equal opportunity to be represented or participate. Neutrality &#8212; in content, wording, questioning, issues for discussion, etc. &#8212; is key.<\/p>\n<p>Board members and other leaders of an organization may, of course, hold their own political views. But when they express those views, they should make it abundantly clear they are speaking for themselves, not on behalf of the organization. Leaders should avoid making political statements at organization meetings. Similarly, the organization\u2019s resources or publications should not be used to express political views.<\/p>\n<p>A charity may conduct educational activities regarding public policy issues of importance to its mission, including issues that divide candidates in an election for public office. However, messages that could be construed as political campaign intervention should be avoided.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Failure To Comply<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Violating the prohibition on political campaign activities can result in revocation of an organization\u2019s tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Visit our website to learn more about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nonprofcpa.com\/\">non-profit compliance issues and non profit accounting<\/a>. \u00a0Or, give us a call today at 616-888-6270. We look forward to helping your non-profit grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nonprofit organizations exempt from tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code &#8212; schools, religious groups, hospitals, social service providers, and other public charities &#8212; should be careful not to violate the law\u2019s prohibition on political campaign activities. What\u2019s Prohibited? Participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, a candidate for public office is absolutely prohibited, whether it\u2019s done directly or indirectly. This&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/2017\/12\/28\/non-profit-taxes\/\">Read More<a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/33"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpagrandrapids.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}